Disappointed with Pakistan’s performance in the ICC Champions Trophy 2013 in England, Sohail Tanvir, the discarded left-arm medium-fast bowler, thinks that the Green Shirts were low on confidence with the bat, which led to their downfall in the competition.
Misbah-ul-Haq and company failed to make an impression in the tournament, losing all their three group matches to be knocked out of the event. A number of sporting analysts have slammed Pakistan’s lacklustre performance in the mega event, with the fans calling for the exclusion of many senior players from the national squad.
Quoted by to Pakpassion, the all-rounder from Rawalpindi said that the bowling attack looked threatening throughout the competition but unfortunately, the batsmen failed to live up to the expectations of the fans.
Between the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 in the Caribbean and the Champions Trophy this year, the Green Shirts have qualified for the semi-final of each and every ICC tournament. This is another reason why Tanvir is disappointed with Pakistan’s showing in the Champions Trophy.
He expressed, “It was very disappointing to see colleagues and team mates struggle during the Champions Trophy. I think we all had high expectations of the team going into the tournament particularly given Pakistan’s record in previous ICC tournaments and if the batsmen had provided the bowlers with some decent scores to defend around the 220 run mark, I’m sure the bowlers would have managed to defend those totals.”
Tanvir further added that Pakistan’s batsmen looked out of sorts throughout the tournament as well as in the series against Scotland and Ireland leading to the illustrious event.
“I think confidence amongst the Pakistani batsmen was low right at the start of the tour. Against Ireland, Pakistan struggled and only narrowly managed to win the two match series,” the left-armer added.
Pakistan’s next assignment in international cricket is expected to be a short tour of West Indies next month, although it is not finalised as yet. Chances are high that some underperforming senior players like Shoaib Malik, Imran Farhat and Kamran Akmal would find it very hard to retain their places in the side.
